Mr. SIKES. So that the deliveries possibly will be a matter of 1 to 3 years? General FORD. Yes, on the basis of deliveries at the start, and then of course we can accelerate production. Mr. SIKES. What I am trying to get down to is how much of this equipment will be available for the present emergency, or other emergencies which might develop immediately. This is part of a longrange program for the Armed Forces rather than for an immediate need? General FORD. For many items, yes; especially the long lead-time combat vehicles and the skysweeper items. Mr. SIKES. But it is also true that much of this will be intended for replacements for other equipment which is being put into the service for the immediate need? General FORD. Yes. Mr. ENGEL. We do not have the time to go into detail, General Ford, but I have a few questions. RENOVATION OF AMMUNITION I notice you have here $22,000,000 for renovation of ammunition. Mr. ENGEL. It seems to me that is rather a small amount, is it not? General FORD. Sir, that is the program under this particular budget. That does not renovate all the ammunition that needs renovation. Mr. ENGEL. How much ammunition in terms of dollars do you have that needs renovation? General FORD. Let me put it another way, sir; if you do not mind. We need $80,000,000 to renovate all ammunition. Mr. ENGEL. $80,000,000 more? General FORD. Yes, sir. Mr. ENGEL. That refers to ammunition which you would use in combat and which is not obsolete nor obsolescent? General FORD. Yes, sir. Now, some of the ammunition will be improved, where a fuse, for instance, has deteriorated. Today we can put on a better fuse. Mr. ENGEL. How much do you have in the 1951 budget for that renovation? General FORD. $6,000,000. Mr. ENGEL. $6,000,000? General FORD. As you see on this chart, it is $22,000,000. Mr. ENGEL. Yes, sir. TANKS I notice you have here $98,000,000 for the T-41 light tank. That is the new tank, is it not? General FORD. Yes, sir. (Discussion off the record.) Mr. ENGEL. That provides for a certain number of tanks, and the cost will be so much per tank. General FORD. Yes, sir. (Discussion off the record.) Mr. ENGEL. You have the same amount of money for the medium tanks as you have for the light tanks. General REEDER. They cost very nearly the same. I think part of the medium tank is in using components we have on hand. General FORD. Sir, also we have some advantages because of the work that has already been done on the medium tank. We have been in production of engines for an order of 800. The price of those engines is coming down. I believe the price of that engine has already come down $3,000. Mr. ENGEL. These are additional light tanks. You have charged the tooling against your first order? General FORD. That is right, sir. Mr. ENGEL. On the light tank? Mr. ENGEL. That has brought it down to the figure you have now? General FORD. Yes, sir. Mr. ENGEL. This is the first order for the medium tank; is that right? General FORD. Yes, sir. Mr. ENGEL. But you are using some of the same equipment such as engines and so forth in the medium tank as in the light? General FORD. Not quite; no, sir. We use the same engine in this M-46 tank that we use in this program, to build from the ground up. We have already put that engine in the tanks when we converted from the Pershing to the Patton. Both the engine and the transmission are very expensive items. Mr. ENGEL. You have charged off the tooling on that item to the previous orders? General FORD. Yes, sir. Mr. ENGEL. That brings the price of the tank down? General FORD. Yes, sir. Mr. ENGEL. What I am getting at is that you have reached that phase of production on these two tanks where you have reduced cost because of the increased numbers? General FORD. Yes, sir; and the advantages that we have from prior production. Mr. ENGEL. Why should that not be true of the skysweeper and some of the other items? I think your skysweeper figures out at about the same as it cost heretofore. General FORD. It is about the same, sir. The skysweeper's quantities are not very large. It does represent a lot of money, but that number spread over a production period of a year and a half or 2 years does not give exactly what we would call high-volume production. TRUCKS Mr. ENGEL. I was wondering about the truck situation. We have had a lot of old trucks, and we have not ordered many trucks. Does this program help you in bettering your situation as to the trucks in the Army? General FORD. It does, sir, to the extent of the rather small quantities that are covered under the program. Mr. ENGEL. How many of the World War II trucks do you have that you are still running? General FORD. I may have to get that information and send it over to you, sir. Mr. ENGEL. I would rather keep that off the record as to the numbers. (Discussion off the record.) Mr. ENGEL. Your truck situation is much better than it was? Is that right? General FORD. It is, sir, because we have some going production on our trucks, on the important trucks such as the 14-ton, the 34-ton, and the 21/2-ton trucks. Mr. ENGEL. This increased manpower the Army is getting, plus the fact that you are going to use these in combat, is going to make a greater demand on you for trucks? General FORD. Very definitely, sir, with the increase in the Army. Mr. PLUMLEY. May I say that I am not satisfied with the completeness of the presentation which has been made here today on justification of the requests made. Mr. MAHON. All right. SIGNAL SERVICE OF THE ARMY WITNESS MAJ. GEN. K. B. LAWTON, DEPUTY CHIEF SIGNAL OFFICER Mr. MAHON. We will now take up for consideration the Signal Service of the Army. General LAWTON. General Akin is out of town, so I have taken over the presentation, sir. Mr. MAHON. We are glad to have you, and we always find you are helpful to us. GENERAL STATEMENT General LAWTON. I would like to enter the opening statement and not read it. Mr. MAHON. All right. (The statement is as follows:) GENERAL STATEMENT OF THE CHIEF SIGNAL OFFICER TOTAL ESTIMATES 1. Mr. Chairman and gentlemen, the regular Signal Service of the Army fiscal year 1951 estimates as reported to the Senate amounted to $158,248,000. In order to support the Korean operations, it has been necessary to increase these estimates for the fiscal year 1951 by $148,752,796, bringing the total estimates under this appropriation to $307,000,796. 2. In order to facilitate your analysis of this supplemental estimate, I have prepared a chart showing the various fields in which the increases occur. The increase included in this supplemental estimate does not include additional funds required in the fields of industrial mobilization, special field activities, or research and development which are being submitted separately. Therefore, in the preparation of this chart, I have deducted the amounts for these purposes included in the regular fiscal year 1951 estimates from the total in order to arrive at a comparable figure to compare with the increases covered in this supplemental estimate. The bars outlined in blue on this chart indicate the comparable figure in the estimates for fiscal year 1951. The bars with the blue cross-hatch indicate the amount of the increase included in these supplemental estimates on a comparable basis. MAJOR PROCUREMENT 3. In the field of major procurement as indicated by the first bar, additional funds in the amount of $87,654,226 are required. Of this total, $22,700,000 are required for the procurement of critical equipment for the Korean operations. $45,000,000 are needed for the procurement of newly developed major items of equipment for the modernization of the expanded Army. Funds in the amount of $14,954,226 are for the procurement of items not available in stock to fill shortages in the units being sent to Korea, and in the new units being activated in the United States. $5,000,000 are required for the procurement of service test models of equipment which will be available for test as a result of the accelerated development program. SUPPLIES AND MATERIALS 4. The next bar covers the funds required for supplies and materials. These funds amounting to $34,837,650 are required for the Korean operations and spare parts for the repair of equipment to be shipped to Korea, and to the newly activated units in the United States. DEPOT OPERATIONS 5. Under "Depot operations," funds in the amount of $8,791,530 are required for the pay of additional civilian personnel to receive, repair, and ship equipment and supplies required in Korea and for the newly activated units in the United States included in the augmented Army. DEPOTS-FAR EAST COMMAND 6. The next bar represents funds in the amount of $2,972,989 required in the Far East Command and Korea to establish new depots for the issue and repair of equipment required in the Korean operations. TRAINING 7. In order to provide trained communication specialists for the Korean operation and the newly activated units in the United States, it will be necessary to increase the capacity of the Signal Corps Training Center at Camp Gordon, Ga. The cost of this increase is estimated at $2,420,038. REPLACEMENT OF MILITARY PERSONNEL WITH CIVILIANS 8. There are no funds included in the regular fiscal year 1951 budget for the replacement of military personnel with civilians. Due to the extreme shortage of communication specialists to fill the requirements in Korea, it is essential that as many enlisted personnel operating fixed communication systems and other activities in the United States be released for duty in Korea as soon as practicable. $5,809,497 have been included in these estimates for this purpose. COMMUNICATIONS FOR THE ARMY 9. The next bar represents the cost of communications for the Army both in the United States and overseas commands. It is estimated that additional funds in the amount of $4,616,066 will be required incident to the movement of troops and supplies to ports of embarkation, the additional procurement load, activation of new units, acceleration of deliveries an dequipment from manufacturers, operation of the task force in Korea, dissemination of intelligence, processing of inductees, notifying families of casualties, activation of new posts and depots, and providing necessary coordination between major commanders and installations incident to the operations. COMBAT PHOTOGRAPHIC COVERAGE 10. Funds in the amount of $1,051,067 are required to process and distribute motion-picture and still-picture coverage of combat operations in Korea. SPECIAL FIELD ACTIVITIES 11. Additional funds in the amount of $599,733 are required for special field activities. PERSONNEL REQUIREMENTS 12. In the lower portion of this chart there is indicated the number of manyears in the regular fiscal year 1951 estimates, and below them the increases required in the various fields on a comparable basis. It should be noted of the total increase of 8,502.1 man-years, 2,794.9 are required in the depots in the Far East command, and 1,637 are required for the replacement of military personnel with civilians. Only 4,070.2 man-years of civilian personnel are being added to our normal operations to handle the Korean operation. This is considered a very modest increase in view of the tremendous increased workload. 13. This covers the high lights of this supplemental estimate. The details are given in the estimates. Our total requirements under this supplemental estimate for fiscal year 1951 are $307,000,796, to which should be added approved increases in industrial mobilization, special field activities, and research and development. General LAWTON. Briefly, for purposes of comparison, our 1951 budget was $158,248,000. From that not in this appropriation but in another portion of it, the contingencies-are industrial mobilization, special field activities, and research and development totaling $42,208,400, which we take from this $158,248,000, and that gives us $116,039,600, which is comparable to the increase we are now asking for, $148,752,000. Mr. PLUMLEY. Pardon me, Mr. Chairman. I want to get this straight. What does that $148,752,000 mean? Is that the total increase? Mr. PLUMLEY. Is it that for which you are asking? General LAWTON. We are asking for this in addition to the regular appropriation that you have had before you several months ago. Mr. PLUMLEY. All right. I understand it now. General LAWTON. If you will look at this bar here [indicating] that is our 1951 regular appropriation on the major procurements. Those are major radio equipments, field wire, and the like. For the supplemental you can see the big increase for the purposes already stated before the committee, that you are familiar with, on these three increments. Supplies and materials, which is vacuum tubes, dry batteries, and the like, there is this much of an increase [indicating]. I will follow along the civilian personnel, which you were interested in, Mr. Engel. We will about double the number in buying major equipments, and the inspectors out in the plants and expediting, both in the 1951 appropriation and the supplemental appropriation. It will take about twice the number of people. These same people buy the supplies and materials. In depot operations in the United States we will increase the personnel by about 38 percent to get the material we are buying in and out of the depots and repairing class C equipment that is there now. In the depot in the Far East we will increase it, 2,795 civilians, in order to ship the supplies and equipment to the troops. Training in our schools at Camp Gordon and Fort Monmouth has an increase in the training load. We will hire additional civilians as instructors. |